In electrical plugboard systems used in test equipment for testing electrical or electronic units, an array of electrical connectors are mounted in a frame to form a first panel and that contain arrays of selectively positioned electrical terminals terminating respective circuits, and the panel is then to be mated with a second panel that contains an array of electrical terminals matable with the connector terminals and that are connected to a computer, where the first panel's connector's terminals are interconnected defining circuits to program the test equipment upon mating with the second panel's terminals connected to the circuits of the computer. Commercially available mechanisms used to engage the mass of electrical interconnections along opposed mating faces, generally employ one of six conventional approaches to open and close the interconnection interfaces: (a) inclined plane; (b) jackscrew; (c) cammed pull/push action; (d) cammed lift action; (e) zero force insertion; and (f) vacuum techniques. For pin and socket terminal mating, approaches (a) through (c) are used, while for pin and spring tabs, approaches (d) and (e) are utilized that result in no insertion resistance as in pin and socket mating. Vacuum approach (f) is employed where spring-loaded pins are depressed by abutment against a mating contact surface.
An inclined plane approach is found in the "Series 90" products sold by Virginia Panel Corporation of Waynesboro, Va. A jackscrew technique is utilized in the "M Series" products sold by AMP Incorporated of Harrisburg, Pa. MAC Panel Company of High Point, N.C. sells "Series 120" products that incorporate a camming pull/push approach. "Universal Programming" products, also sold by AMP Incorporated, use a camming lift action technique, while "Linear and Rotary CAM ZIF PC Board Edge Connector" products of AMP Incorporated also use a "zero insertion force (ZIF)" mechanism. Finally, one example of the vacuum approach is applied in "In-Circuit" products of GenRad Incorporated of Concord, Mass.
These six methods have generally served the electronics industry satisfactorily for the particular contact densities involved heretofore. Increasingly, the electronics industry must provide interconnection arrangements with a greater number of contacts placed closer and closer together, having smaller sizes and with various of their parameters modified to result in high speed signal transmission. A greater pin count results in higher resistive forces during interface mating that must be overcome. Other areas of concern that need to be addressed in the connectors and in the securing apparatus therefor, are flexibility in the selection of the contact design, miniaturization of contacts, and signal transmission performance including signal integrity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,951 discloses an operating mechanism for a plugboard system to connect and disconnect electrical terminals of a front bay with respective terminals of a rear bay, through linear movement. The operating mechanism includes hanger plates and sliding cam plates mounted on a rear frame, with the cam plates having profiled cam slots and L-shaped slots therein. An operating member is pivotally mounted into the rear frame to one side of the terminal array and includes rollers that are disposed in the L-shaped slots so that when the operating member is manipulated from one angular position to another, the rollers move along the L-shaped slots causing the cam plates to move along the rear frame, that causes the cam slots to linearly move support members on a front frame thereby connecting or disconnecting the electrical terminals.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,383 discloses a dual action operating mechanism for a plugboard system, wherein the mechanism first moves the front bay relative to the rear bay in a straight inward direction for connecting pin-and-socket ones of the terminals, and subsequently moving a subframe of the rear bay a preselected distance in a normal direction to connect coextending blade ones of the terminals, all through manipulation of a pivotally mounted operating member from one angular position to another.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,352 is disclosed a high density electrical connector system for electrically interfacing contacts to contact pad surfaces under pressure. An assembly includes an array of connectors that are affixed to a common circuit board defining an interface with an array of contact pads exposed to be mated. The assembly is first moved with zero force to be adjacent a mating interface of an apparatus defined by an interposer, an assembly of a housing substrate containing an array of discrete contact members including contact portions protruding beyond the abutment or mating surface to be engaged by the contact pads of the circuit board of the assembly and urged into their respective cavities under spring bias, the contacts in turn defining electrical connections to circuits within the apparatus. An actuator of the assembly is rotatable after positioning the assembly in abutment against the interposer, with an end of a barrel of the actuator received into an apertures of the interposer. Rotation of the actuator cams interlocking sections of the barrel end into position along a cooperable locking surface within the apparatus to define a cinched or locked fully engaged position establishing assured contact normal force in a high density mating contact array, and that is easily unmated by rotation of the actuator to a disengaged position.
It is desired to provide a mechanism for magnifying manually applied forces to attain the substantial forces necessary to overcome the resistance to mating of a high density array of associated pairs of electrical contacts adapted to be mated upon axial movement, by moving the associated contacts axially into fully mated positions once the mating interfaces containing the arrays are proximate and aligned with each other.
It is also desired to provide such a mechanism that locks the mating interfaces in the fully mated position while permitting and facilitating unlocking and unmating thereof when desired.